How a frugal mindset, not a high income, is the biggest advantage in the quest to retire early.
So our $900/mo apartment in Salt Lake City is for sale by the owner, so i've had to hang out here while people rubberneck inside the apartment.
One notable future buyer was a couple from California who asked what utilities went for here. I said that the gas can get pretty expensive in the winter - up to $150 a month.
They both broke out in uproarious laughter and said that their gas bill was $1200 a month and it seemed like there was this insinuation that i was being cheap. It was more of a 'laughing at you' than 'laughing with you' sort of laugh.
I brushed it off but realized later that it was kinda funny that these people were laughing, considering that they chose to live in a house where JUST ONE monthly bill is the same cost of an entire mortgage for a duplex apartment in Utah.
I am sure that at the kind of income level, these folks can shrug off a $1200/mo gas bill.. but if they had saved/invested their money and lived a frugal life, they could have had enough rental properties paid off that they'd have retired 20 years ago, long before their gray hairs came in. They'd not be standing here in front of me, chuckling about how quaint a $150/month winter gas bill was.
The middle/upper class can be so retarded about money it's not even funny; i've seen it again and again working at luxury hotels and encountering these folk.
The great thing is that all it takes for a lower class person to rise up is to learn how to invest and save. If you grew up poor, it's easy for you to live a poor person's lifestyle while increasing your income, but a middle or upper class person can't stand living that way at all.
This is a huge advantage a lower income person has. One can, through more efficient allocation of capital, beat these people to retirement quickly.
Middle/upper class folks have an advantage over the lower class mostly because they pass money wisdom about investing down to their children and make sure those kids are well educated. But their disadvantage is that they will waste money on things like.. mansions that have $1200/month gas bills. They invest more than lower class people do, but not to their true potential because they do not understand frugality.
And that's a good thing, because if the rich mostly didn't blow their money left and right, income stratification in this country would be hundreds of times worse.
So yeah.. if you are of lower income and understand the value of money, don't fret when someone laughs at your frugal lifestyle.. the fact that he/she is laughing is an admission of his/her failure to work as hard as you do at this game.
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I don't think they are laughing at you - it's the same as when we laugh about $40 / a month payments compared to our typical $250 + per month - it's more of a laughter based on relief that it is so low - I wouldn't take it personally at all - it's unlikely they were judging you - especially on something you don't even have that much control of.
There was a certain air about them that made me think they were judging me.. but even if i was wrong about this, it still got me thinking about how absurd it is to have a $1,200 heating bill in California.
It is absurd - ours has been typically $250 - $700 during the summer - this month we didn't turn on the AC at all and the bill was still $150- it's a complete sham!
Woah, what the.. how large of a property do you have? Me and my wife are living in 800 square feet, which is just the right size for us..
I know there's a gazillion energy taxes in California but... wow.
Our electricity bill never goes over $150 in the peak of summer. We use a combination of swamp cooler and AC though, so i'm sure we could be paying up to $200 without.
900 Sq Ft. Thankfully we are moving to house we just remodeled and it is a lot more energy efficient. I think it has a lot to do with our outdated AC unit and the fact that this place has a lot of leaks ( for example a doggie door) and some windows that have a lot of draft. I think those all contributing to it - but like I said - we are moving soon - so it wont be a problem much longer.